Asian-Style Fermented Vegetables

From the Vitality Food Feature ‘Preserve Your Harvest the Old Fashioned Way‘.

This is similar to “kimchee” which is traditionally made out of Chinese cabbage or bok choy, but I use a mixture of red and green cabbage as it is easier to come by in my kitchen. There’s no need to be exact in the measurements below.

Ingredients

• 1 pound each of shredded green cabbage and shredded red cabbage
• 1/2 pound grated carrots
• 1 large scraped and grated white daikon radish
• 1 minced onion
• 4 or 5 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• a pinch of hot chili paste or minced chili peppers (optional)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sea salt

1) In a large bowl, mix together shredded green cabbage, shredded red cabbage, grated carrots, white daikon radish, minced garlic, ginger.

2) You can add a pinch of hot chili paste or a minced chili peppers to suit taste (optional).

3) Mix well with the hands, squeezing until the vegetables begin to release juice.

4) Measure sea salt into a bowl.

5) Layer the vegetables in a crock, sprinkling each layer evenly with the salt, and pushing and mashing it down with your hands as you layer. You should see juice forming at the end of the last layer.

6) Weigh the vegetables down with something heavy. I use a rock.

7) After a couple of hours, push the rock down hard and enough juice will be released to keep vegetables submerged. Cover crock with a cloth. Set in warm place to ferment for 5 days.

8) Taste, and when ready, store crock in cold dark place or transfer the contents to a jar and keep in fridge.